President's Column

New Health Plan Built to Serve Members

Last year at this time our organization was in the process of celebrating 100 years of Nebraska Farm Bureau. As part of that Centennial celebration, I spent a lot of time highlighting the member-driven accomplishments of our organization over the past century. Sifting through our organization’s history was a treat. Like a walk down memory lane, it further reinforced why our county Farm Bureaus and the Nebraska Farm Bureau exist and the importance of the work we’ve done together to serve farm and ranch families through the years.

I mention this because it was one of the first things that came to mind when we confirmed that Nebraska Farm Bureau would be able to offer a new member benefit in the form of an exclusive large group association health plan for farmers, ranchers, and agribusinesses, with our partner at Medica. While we had been working for more than a year to put this together, the feedback received from members during summer listening sessions validated the need. Stop after stop, I heard real-life stories from members about the problems caused by outrageously high costs of health insurance. Some stories detailed the alteration of core family businesses where spouses had to leave the farm to find a job that provided health insurance, or in some cases, young families going without health insurance at all.

Our goal with this new health plan was to provide members with another option. And like those accomplishments achieved by our organization over the last 100 years, I’m pleased and proud to say that we’re now able to do that. It’s my hope that many of you reading this will be able to take advantage of this new member benefit by working with your local Farm Bureau Financial Services agent to find yet even more value in your Farm Bureau membership.

Nothing worth having comes easy. This process was no exception. There are a lot of people that made this new benefit possible, and I thank them all for their work. I do want to recognize and thank Nebraska Farm Bureau Chief Administrator Rob Robertson. This would not have happened without his leadership in finding ways to serve our members that makes life better for farm and ranch families.

Speaking of making life better…Election Day is right around the corner (Tuesday, Nov. 6). Agriculture voices and votes matter. As I write this, the skies are cloudy, and the mist continues to fall. While there are still plenty of crops that need to come in, please make sure that you take part in our elective process. Nebraska Farm Bureau-PAC has designated several candidates as “Friends of Agriculture”. You’ll find them in our voter's guide on pages 11-13. We need people in office who will go to bat for farm and ranch families on key issues at the state and national level. Let’s make sure we help get them there.